


Colours of the World

by Sophie_21th



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Colours, Dystopia, Emotions, Future Fic, Or everybody is, The guardians and all others like them are caged, but alive, in their own way, nobody's perfect
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-01
Updated: 2020-01-15
Packaged: 2020-11-09 05:36:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 14,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20848382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sophie_21th/pseuds/Sophie_21th
Summary: This work was originally written by a very talented friend who, unfortunately, does not have an account here! I am translating it into english, originally it's German. You can find that on fanfiction.de, her name there is KaraFrost, the story's is Die Farben der Welt.As you might have seen, the story is LONG (about 560800 words) and I have a full time job, so updates will not be regular, but I'll do my best! Now for the actual summary!"It's the year 2289. The heyday of the Guardians is long over. Humanity turned away from anything unfamiliar, you may call it dangerous.Earth is a grey, melancholy planet. Everything is set in a strict order, by strict rules and a strict timeline, set for maximum safety of the people. Any deviation is counted as dangerous and not tolerated.Young student Ethan does his best to follow the rules, until the day he discovered something.Grey is not the only colour of the world..."Updates every Sunday unless life gets in the way!!!





	1. Prologue- Grey Morning

The world is grey. It’s neither good or bad, but normal.

You wake up. It’s 7 am. Average. Ordinary. You look around your room. It’s squared, with a single bed, a desk, chair, closet and a shelf. It’s normal, no different from the average. It’s the way every teenagers home you know looks like. 

First, you slip into your slippers. They are neither too soft nor too scratchy, complete average.

You go over to your window and pull the curtains apart. They slide open, light streaming in from outside. It’s neither too light nor too dark, still, for a quick moment you are blinded. Blinking, you stare at the street where the mailman throws exactly three letters into your letterbox and continues, like every morning, then your view wanders up to the house across the street. Like usual, there you see the neighbours boy. You’re the same age though no friends. He sees you too, but you don’t greet each other nor do you stay to observe any longer. You know, it would be strange for you to engage, as it is not the norm to establish acquaintanceship because you see each other when looking out the street in the morning. You know it, he knows it, and none of you can stray away from the System, or even want to.

You continue your daily routine, as usual. You open your closet and pull out your school uniform, neatly hanging on a hanger. It’s not much different to your usual clothes with grey as the dominant colour. Sober, functional and a little bit lifeless. You don’t know anything different and reach for the clothing. It takes you exactly three minutes and twenty-four seconds to put on your neatly ironed pants (grey), clean shirt (light grey) and coat (grey). Then you tie your tie (dark grey). Technically it’s not a school uniform to represent your own educational establishment, rather it’s every student’s uniform, no matter where from, what gender or what age they are. They basically just tell one thing about you: you’re a student. Just like everybody is, was or will be. 

You look at the time and realise that it’s time to move down the stairs and ingest your breakfast. You step toward your door and press down the handle, stepping out into the hallway at the exact same second your little sister does. 

As always you greet her: “Good morning”

She nods and answers: “Good morning.” As usual.

You walk down to the ground floor of your typical, average single family house. You’re greeted by the smell of fresh toast and your parents, sitting by the table already. 

“Good morning”, says your father.

“Good morning”, says your mother.

“Good morning”, say both you and your sister.

You sit down at the table and find your breakfast ready in front of you. A jam and butter toast with a glass of milk. Beside those lies a package holding your school lunch. You don’t have to take a look to know exactly what’s inside. An apple, a sandwich, a bottle of juice. Like usual, completely average. 

Breakfast takes exactly eleven minutes and seventeen seconds. 

Your father stands up first. “It’s time for work, I love you”, he says. 

“See you later”, says your mother. “I love you”

“See you later”, say you and your sister. “We love you”

Your father leaves the room, his steps sound from the hallway until the door shuts. 

Your mother looks toward you, prompting. As usual, her work only begins in an hour, so your sister and you are next to go. You stand up.

“We’re going to the bus”, you say.

“Until later”, says your mother, “I love you”

“Until later”, your sister and you say, “We love you”

Without another word you turn around and leave the room. Your school bags stand beside the dressing rack and the shoe shelf, simple brown leather. A crazy colour amidst all the shades of grey in your house.

You put on your shoes (grey), grip your scarf (dark grey) and pull on your jacket (dark grey).

Your sister’s clothes look just like yours, only a little bit smaller, normal for her age. You are exactly 5.479 feet tall, the average for boys like you.  
Otherwise, you have the same brown eyes, the same nose, neither too long nor too broad, the same mouth, lips neither too slim nor too full. Your hair is black, average. Yours are short, hers tied up in a ponytail.

You pick up your bag and throw it over your shoulder, then you reach for the door handle and press down. Together with your sister you leave the house, like every day, at point 7:29 am.

** ** ** ** ** ** ** 

Inside the bus you sit in the seventh row, beside a girl from your school, from your class even. It’s normal, to sit beside someone you know. She looks just like your sister, just a little older. Sixteen years, same as you. You’ve been driving this way ever since grade school, yet you have never talked in this place, or rather, this vehicle, not a word. Why would you, it’s strange to talk with someone you know just by sitting beside them on the bus.

The drive takes exactly forty minutes and two seconds. No traffic jam, no accidents, no garbage truck getting in your way. The route is planned perfectly, no inaccuracies or divagation from the norm. 

When the bus turns into the driveway of your school, like every morning, you can see the concrete block (grey) inside which you are taught. When you stop all the students sitting at the corridor stand up and leave the bus single file. Six seconds later the other students, sitting at the window, rise and leave. You leave the bus (grey) organized. Afterward, you march over to the school, the way taking exactly three minutes and one second. The sky above you is clouded (light grey) but there’s no rain. The ground underneath your feet is hard and rocky, though still even and without any irregularities. You are the eighty-fourth student in a long row of them, like every morning and every evening, when you leave the school to step into the bus (grey) and drive home to the grey district with your grey house and your grey room.

By now you’ve reached the inside and walk straight toward your classroom, together with your classmates. Single benches and a blackboard (grey), a world map (different shades of grey) and a clock (light grey) greet you.

You sit down in the third row at the window, where you’ve been sitting your whole life. Normal. Everybody else does the same. You turn and see the boy beside you. John, your classmate, who you know since first grade, looks just like you, with brown eyes and black hair. Completely average, everybody looks like that. 

“Good morning”, he says.

“Good morning”, you say.

Then you look to the front because you know, it’s 7:54 am, and in that exact moment, the door opens and your teacher enters the room. It’s absolutely quiet, the only exception being the teachers shoes he steps toward his desk. He’s been teaching you since first grade, in any and every class there is. Completely normal. You wait patiently for him to open his briefcase (grey), cough quietly and unpack his supplies. It takes him exactly four minutes and thirty seconds. 

The clocks hand (grey) is closing in on 8:00 am. Nobody moves a muscle, all of you wait for the bell to ring, completely normal. 

Your teacher’s done with his preparations, stands stockstill in front of the blackboard and looks to everyone, like every morning. Then the bell rings.

You want to reach for your mathematics book, average, like always, waiting for today's tasks to be told, but suddenly you freeze, like the rest of the class. Because your teacher hasn’t taken his book like usual but continues looking at you. Slowly, you let your hand lower against your desk, like all the others.

The grey haired man in front of the blackboard opens his mouth and his monotone voice comes out, completely normal. “Today, we welcome a new student” He looks over to the door (grey). “Come in”, he says.

You’re confused. For a short moment, his voice racked, got higher than normal, and his face seems more tense than average. The door opens, and you see why.

In comes a girl, wearing your usual uniform (grey). However, on her face she wears a broad grin, not a normal way to look.Her eyes (green) are shining in a way you have never seen. Her hair is not up in a ponytail but cut short, just a little longer than your own. They are bright red.

She looks over to you and laughs.

“Morning you nerds!”, she greets you with a bell-like voice. “I am Mave McCally and I have been searching for you-”, she raises her hand to point at you,”for a long time now!”, the red girl continues. “Hi Ethan, I would like to have you in my squad!”

That day, with that sentence, Mave McCally put an end to your normalcy.  
From that day on, your life changes drastically.  
Grey is not the only colour of the world.


	2. Red Hair

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because I got such a nice comment so soon and already finished another chapter, here you go! Chapter one! I don't intend to update daily, so don't get used to it ^^
> 
> Have fun reading the first Chapter ;)

Ethan started sweating. Did that strange girl just talk to him? That wasn’t good, it wasn’t normal and everything that wasn’t normal would harm him.

The teacher cleared his throat. “Mave, could you please sit down on a free seat and quietly follow the lesson, like it’s proper for a student?”

The redhead grinned up to him and scratched her head bashfully. “Oh, yeah, right. Haven’t been out in the field for quite a while, completely forgot how things are done here.” 

Ethan could feel how the class turned more anxious with every word the strange girl said. What was she talking about? Field? Abnormal, utterly abnormal. Mave however didn’t seem to care about the discomfort of the class, quite the opposite actually. Without her grin faltering she gripped onto her school bag a little tighter and ran straight through the room. 

Cold sweat dripped down Ethans forehead. No, please no! Just now he realised, the only free seat in the room was directly behind him.

Mave already reached him and stopped beside his desk, looking at him with her deeply green eyes.

“Talk to you in lunch break!”, she proclaimed happily. 

Ehan didn’t answer, didn’t know how he could. He didn’t know this girl, but the way she talked to him, so familiar, as if they’d been friends for years. He felt the disgusted and shocked looks of his classmates on him. It was immediately apparent when someone in their vicinity didn’t classify as ‘normal’. Ethan cursed inwardly. It had cost him enough time and effort to fix his reputation, to finally be recognised as someone who lives by the system. And now this Mave McCally comes along, waltzes into his classroom and ruins it all within seconds.

When he doesn’t answer she shrugged unperturbed, walks around him and falls into her chair without another word. 

For a while the room sat in shocked silence. Then, finally, the teacher started talking. “Today, we will talk about the computation of the turning and reversal points of a parabola, please open your books at page 325 and solve the four equations given with following…”

Ethan sighed and stared at the blackboard, where the teacher was writing a complexe equation. He tried hard to banish the colour red and the corresponding girl from his mind, at least for this one hour…

** ** ** ** ** 

The bell rings at point 9:30 am, punctual, like always. The teacher lowers the chalk and turns to the class. “We’ll continue in exactly thirty minutes.” With that, he marches out the room to drink coffee with his colleges like usual.

Ethan and his classmates closed their books at the same time, making the distinct sound of a single book being almost violently closed five seconds later very audible. Ethan flinched out of his stand-by-mode, his hands shaking when he heard the chair behind him move back and confident but light steps come closer. Within no time at all, Mave stood before him, bending forward so much that her lush, red hair almost touches his cheeks. 

Strangers aren’t supposed to get that close, Ethans mind supplied. It’s just not normal!

“I got something to talk to you about”, her voice, clear and a little to loud, bore into his head, unrelenting, to burn into his mind. He didn’t answer.  
Couldn’t she just leave him alone???

Mave just laughed at his obvious discomfort. That their classmates were absolutely silent and clearly listening with rapt attention didn’t seem to bother her in the least. Ethan on the other hand was turning visibly pale. He stood, not even looking at the new girl. The grey room, the silent stares, her glaring red, it all threatened to overwhelm him. He wouldn’t be able to control himself for long. His body wanted to betray him, ruin what his calculating mind had worked for.

He hurried past Mave. Stubbornly staring at the door, walking toward it. Sweaty hands pressed down on the door handle, opening Ethans way to safety, Hiding him from the judging stares. The door shut with a bang.

Ethan ran his fingers through his short, black hair. As if by themselves, his feet carried him away, toward the exit. He didn’t see any other students on his path, it was completely deserted, but that was normal. For the first break, students tended to stay in their classrooms, only around noon they was supposed to get some fresh air to relax their spirits. His steps echoed, causing the atmosphere around him to darken, to seem almost haunting. 

Ethan swallowed nervously and stopped. In front of him was the exit. He could look outside through two small windows. Outside was nothing beside the rocky ground and the path he took that morning, like every morning, to get here from the bus. Ethan shivered. Less than an hour ago, his life had been completely normal…

Suddenly, a grip like iron bore into his shoulder and a raspy voice whispered. “You trying to run away?”

Ethan flinched violently and screamed, pained. Without thinking about what kind of monster was trying to attack him he ran, pushing open the heavy metal doors, without looking back.

While he raced away, Mave McCally stood in the grey school hallway and shook of laughter.

“Looks like I found the Fear!”


	3. Grey Playgrounds

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For now, I'll upload one chapter for every two I write down ^^ So here you go!

Ethan cowered under a grey plastic slide, whimpering, while he slowly rocking back and forth, arms tight around his knees. His mind seems to yell at him. “You’re pathetic!” but he ignores it while flinching at every single leave the ever growing wind carries past him. Thank god the playground was abandoned, but that was normal, it was not usual for mothers and fathers to bring their kids to a playground this early in the morning. In fact, Ethan knew exactly at what times he was able to use this hiding spot as he was here quite frequently.

The pebbles under his butt were painful and simply boosted his anguish. If the new girl followed him all the way here, well, she was in for a pathetic view. Shivering, Ethan buried his face into the soft fabric of his scarf and closed his eyes. He didn’t want to see anything around him. Preferably, everything would just dissolve around him and leave him to the darkness he so desired, dark and quiet. Good by plastic swings, goodby climbing frame. Just him, all alone in a world of nothing.

“You comfy?”

Ethan flinched, surprised. He tried to stand up but hit his head on the slide above him and sunk back down with a pained groan. When he opened his eyes again, vision blurred by tears, all he could see was bright red hair. 

Mave McCally was crouching beside him, grinning, amused at his expense. “You are really a pathetic scaredy cat my friend.”

Whimpering Ethan held his hand to his newly acquired bump. “W-what do you- What do you want from me?”, he asked, tense, which was somewhat painful as he bit his tongue, too. As if his luck wasn’t bad enough already. 

Mave didn’t answer. Instead she just stared at him.

Ethan knew exactly what she saw in front of her. A young man, average as can be if his looks were concerned, so average it’s almost scary. Black hair, brown eyes. Exactly 5.479 feet tall, no birthmarks or anything else on his face. Neither too fat nor too thin, not ugly or good looking. He was the perfectly normal human being. If all those impressions weren’t ruined by the fact that he, with his sixteen years, was cowering underneath a playground slide like a toddler, snot running down his nose, the taste of blood in his mouth and tear tracks down his cheeks. Just wonderful, absolutely great.

She on the other hand… Eyes much too big, bright green. Red hair, swaying all around her head, a birthmark right underneath the corner of her mouth, skin way too pale… What could a girl like that, completely ignoring any and all norms, want from someone like him?

While all those thoughts raced through his head, her smile slowly diminished. Instead, she reached out her hand to him, standing up again. 

“We need to talk”, she murmured, “But we should probably go for a better location first.” 

Scared, Ethan looked up to her. Did he really want to trust her? No, no way. Better he stayed here for the rest of the day, or better yet, the rest of his life!

Mave must’ve guessed what was going through his head. Instead of waiting for him to make up his mind on whether he should take her supposedly friendly request she bent forward, roughly gripping the front of his shirt and pulling him out from underneath the slide. Ethan barely had the time to even blink when he already found himself halfway across the playground and pushed onto a nearby bench.

While he stared at her openmouthed, her grin had returned more sinister, more like a wolf on a hunt. The day really just got worse by the second… There was not a single soul nearby to help if worse came to worse. Now his secret hideout to cry by himself came to bite his back.

Mave crossed her arms in front of her chest. Apparently she preferred to stay standing, watching down on her prey. Was this one of the so called bullying attacks that existed back in the day, before their normal era? 

“I-I’m going to-to call the po-police”, he mumbled. A straight lie as he himself did not wish for any unwanted witnesses. What would they think of him if they saw him like this? The disaster of many years ago threatened to repeat itself, and Ethan was completely fine to avoid that.

“Don’t pee your pants scaredy cat!”, Mave laughed.

Too late, Ethan thought.

The red haired girl seemed to enjoy his discomfort. “This, my dear, is your lucky day!”, she announced. 

Was she kidding? Might be that him and her defined ‘luck’ differently, but up to this point Ethan would much rather describe the day as his ‘biggest nightmare of all time’. His new classmate however didn’t seem inclined to agree. Again she reached out her hand, which he stared at, just like before, scared out of his mind. 

“I have a proposal for you, Ethan”, Mave McCally said, smiling. “How do you feel about saving the world with me?”

Yes. Definitely. The. Biggest. Nightmare. Of. All. Time. Great. He fell for a lunatic.


	4. Blue Tears

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "The deeper the blue becomes, the more strongly it calls man towards the infinite, awakening in him a desire for the pure and, finally, for the supernatural... The brighter it becomes, the more it loses its sound, until it turns into silent stillness and becomes white."
> 
> ~Wassily Kandinsky

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm bored, so here you go xD

Mave frowned while looking down at Ethan. It was without question that he was the right guy for their organisation, none of those puppets out there would end up crying and shivering in fear just because someone tapped them on their shoulder, and none of them would have bolted in a blind panic like that. Her smile had disappeared when she pictured the things coming for the guy in the future. Should she really just rip im out of his save, familiar life like this? Mave seized him up again. Yeah, outwardly the perfect human, if you looked past the red rimmed eyes and snot.

Ethan felt her eyes on him and started shivering even more. Immediately, the grin on her lips returned, though it didn’t seem to calm him at all. 

“I-I’m going to-to call the po-police”, the freaked out boy stuttered, causing Mave to laugh out loud. 

“Don’t pee your pants scaredy cat!”, she waved him off. “I have a proposal for you, Ethan”, she continued, “How do you feel about saving the world with me?”

Ethans eyes went wide as dinner plates and his mouth fell down to his chest. In that moment, Mave could read his thoughts perfectly. No doubt, he was absolutely thrilled.

She laughed, relieved. Maybe this would be easier than she expected it to be. She stepped closer to him and bent down to him.

"You are the pure reincarnation of fear”, she stated, matter-of-factly.

He just replied with a loud sob. 

Mave carefully laid a hand on his shoulder while he tensed underneath it, though she ignored that. 

“Do you not often feel like the world just doesn’t understand you?”

Almost imperceptible Ethans shivers slowed. His squinted at her, wary and swalowed down his next sob. She seems to have hit a sore spot.

“I-I don’t k-know what yo-you’re talking- about”, he replied shakily.

Denial? Well, nothing new there dear, Mave thought.

“Great”, Mave grinned. “Let me say this differently. Why exactly did you pay such careful attention to your classmates not finding out about your little crying session? I already said that you’re a scaredy cat, so theoretically, you would be much saver from me with your class around” 

Ethan turned his head, stubbornly avoiding her gaze, as he chewed on his lips. She really must scare him a lot, for him to be unable to look her in the eye. Mave sighed, taking her hand away from his shoulder.

“You don’t have to answer”, Mave said with a dry voice, “I know the reason, believe me. We all know what happens to people who don’t suit the system. The people whose character traits were not destroyed by years of careful manipulation and merciless suppression.”

Ethans hands coiled for a second. Mave frowned, it almost looked like she woke some unpleasant memories. But as long as she wasn’t sure what he reacted to she should probably just keep talking.

“What would you say if I could give you a way out of that?” Her grin gained more confidence when Ethans head turned toward her promptly. He still avoided her eyes, but his own were wide open, tears almost gone.

“You-You can… make me normal?”, he whispered, hopeful.

The red haired girl scratches her scalp, thinking. Of course, all the people she talked to asked this question first. 

“Not exactly”, she amended. The boys head sunk down low and his just now tensed up shoulders listlessly did the same. Mave however wasn’t finished.

“Though I can show you the way to a world where we don’t have to hide from everybody else!” She bent down again and took his face in between her palms. While his shiveres started anew, Maver forced him to look at her directly.  
“You are extraordinary Ethan”, she said firmly, “Not abnormal, or unwanted, or weird. Nothing for others to judge just because. Believe me when I say, with my organization you can change the world to be a place where nobody will be ostracized for being different than someone else.”

Maybe Mave was wrong, but there seemed to be a small spark of hope in his eyes. Anyhow, the tears had started up again. Holy moon cow he really was a crybaby!

“How?”, was all he asked.

Mave laughed. “Finally we’re talking straight!” With a relaxed sigh she sits down on the grey plastic bench next to Ethan. “Ever heard of the guardians?” 

His questioning gaze was answer enough and Mave shrugged. “Don’t worry, you’ll meet them soon enough. Or rather what’s left of them.” Mave crossed her arms above her chest and leaned back. “I already told you that you’re extraordinary. With that I meant that you have a special talent, one very few people possess these days. Now guess what it is!”

Ethan swallowed nervously. “I’m… really scared.”

Bravo, his first sentence without stuttering. Maybe there was hope for him after all.


	5. Pale Green Trees

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "It's been proven by quite a few studies that plants are good for our psychological development. If you green an area, the rate of crime goes down. Torture victims begin to recover when they spend time outside in a garden with flowers. So we need them, in some deep psychological sense, which I don't suppose anybody really understands yet."
> 
> ~Jane Goodall

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm getting to the interesting parts with translating, if I don't get at least one "What the everloving Mandy!" then (which was basically my own reaction at the time xD) Imma be a sad cookie ^^  
But for now, here you go ;D I'm just so impatient it's terrible xD I wanna post it aaaaaall in one go :)

“I’m… really scared.”

“You got it!”, Mave nodded satisfied, while Ethans cheeks slowly regained their colour. He really was a jumpy guy, just like expected. Though that did not mean he would run from Mave endlessly. By now he even seemed to trust her, just a little. Maybe that was because they’re both sitting in the same boat and knew it.

“How exactly d-do you want to-to save the world?”, Ethan asked with earnest interest. 

The red haired girl interlaced her hands behind her head. “Well, my statement wasn’t quite correct”, she relented. “First of all I should’ve said we instead of I. As I mentioned I got some more people on my side, a whole organisation actually, and we don’t intend to save the world in a traditional way, we want to change it from the ground up”

Her scornful gaze skipped over the grey playground over to the sparcely growing trees. Obviously, a park without any greenery was wasn’t the norm, so a couple plants weren’t to be missed. Though the ones who expected the speck of nature to be a welcome contrast to it’s grey surroundings would have to find themselves mistaken. The leaves were of a sickly pale green, barely sticking out of it’s colourless surroundings. On top of that, all of them were trimmed and shaped carefully to look exactly the same, stood in a perfect row and even the earth and roots were covered by gravel, making the whole look even worse.

Mave examined the boy. Had he ever seen a real tree in his whole life? One that reached so far into the sky it seemed to touch the clouds? Probably not.

“If you join us you can help to rid this world of this stupid normality”, she laughed carefree. “All we need of you is a simple ‘I’m in’! What do you say?”

Ethan promptly lowered his head when Mave tried to look him in the eye, challenging. She could perfectly imagine how he must feel at the moment. She was a recruiter, bringing people into the organization basically was her specialty. Still, she couldn’t figure out this boy. Most people she talked to had characteristics like bravery, happiness or diligence. Ethan was one of the few exceptions because usually, the organisation tried to avoid recruiting people with negative features. Mave wasn’t sure whether she could wholly accept that as her own center wasn’t something ‘good’ either. In her opinion, if one as going to try and save the world, they shouldn’t do things by halves. Even fear was something a human should be allowed to have. Just because someone was afraid didn’t mean it was automatically bad. Her organisation probably just reacted that way toward fear because of a certain myth named Pitch Black. Though Ethan didn’t have to know about that part just yet. He would find out soon enough, if he decided to join. 

So far he had kept silent about her questions anyway. She could basically see the gears in his head turning while he tried to make up his mind on whether to trust her- or not. His face was completely serious. 

Mave gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder. Time for some tricks.

“Of course I can understand it if you want to keep hiding from your classmates underneath a plastic slide like a toddler”, she smiled kindly. “Why admit to being scared shitless? Who knows, maybe you’ll survive this community for one, two years. If you’re cover were to blow, well, I guess you know what happens to those people, as soon as they find out it’s ‘Hello revision clinic!’ Though once you’re of age the whole thing might look even worse. You’re probably not even able to imagine it but those people inside the clinic use pretty painful therapy-methods and-”

“I know”, Ethan interrupted quietly.

Without her noticing his tears had started up again. Mave tried not to groan. Whoever ended up with taking care of him in the future would need to have a lot of patience. Not her job, then. Though her persuasion tactics finally seemed to pay off. Even though he looked like a drowned cat, he at least looked the tiniest bit determined. 

“...I’m in”, he mumbled into his shirt collar.

Triumphant Mave jumped up. “Fantastic! Then follow me, Ethan Smith!”


	6. Red Apples

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I want to be different. If everyone is wearing black, I want to be wearing red."
> 
> ~Maria Sharapova

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got good work in today, so new chapter for you guys ^^
> 
> By the way, if you find any glaring mistakes, please point them out so I can correct them, that way the next reader won't have to see it :D

Ethan followed Mave with careful steps. However, when he started falling back more and more, Mave turned and grasped his arm, pulling him along unrelentingly. They had already left the park behind, but they weren’t going toward the school either. Ethan had complained multiple times, how it wasn’t normal and proper in their society to skip school. Mave just answered by laughing out loud and patting him on his back hard enough to take his breath away. 

“You’re going to do a lot of stuff that isn’t 'proper' in the future”, she just said and grinned. “Better get used to it!”

Ethan already doubted his decision to come along. Still, Mave would be right sooner or later. Even if they didn’t show it, some of his classmates were already starting to get suspicious, that something about him wasn’t right. He flinched harder than usual at any loud noise. He got way too anxious when passing by a dog. When thrown into a new situation there was noone to trust less than him. In the end he had decided to go for the group that he feared less than the other, and that was Maves mysterious organization. He might not know much about it yet, the normal society however he knew much closer than he ever wanted to. After all he already experienced in person what happened to patients in those so called clinics. 

He shivered and pushed the unwanted memories back to the depths of his mind. No, he definitely did NOT want to return there, ever. They were his biggest fear of all and he would do anything to escape from that. Well, almost everything.

“We’re almost there!”, Mave called over her shoulder.

Ethan looked around. They hadn’t left London, far from it. Instead of walking out of the city to some sort of secret hideout like he expected, Mave had led him to the city center. Obviously that just meant the geographical center of his hometown. The government had enforced the rule that every part of the city had an equal amount of shops, homes and community areas. The same principal ruled over every other continent of earth. Even the composition was the same. That way Ethan could perfectly navigate his way even on the other side of the globe if he ever needed to find the closest supermarket. Ironically,Mace McCally stopped right in front of one of those buildings. In front of then, Ethan could see the familiar square beton building, with a sign reading ‘fruit shop’ above the glass doors. 

“A… fruit shop?”

He looked at the redhead, flabbergasted. He would’ve liked to say some more, but the glare she sent him caused him to look down at the ground quickly. 

Around them, the usual daily routine continued. Adults walked to their workplace or went shopping for groceries. Some entered the shop in front of them. They earned the odd wary look or two. Nothing weird about that, they were after all wearing their obvious school uniform which meant they were supposed to be inside a classroom, not out and about walking down a street. Though nobody stopped them to point out their mistake, that was the job of policemen, an unplanned chat with two wayward teenagers wasn’t proper routine.

“Trust me, this is just the right place!”, Mave said and smiled at Ethan. It would’ve looked almost friendly had her eyes not gained an evil glint, her grip on his arm tightening notably. It felt like a predator watching its prey, not leaving any gaps for it to escape, no matter how much it tried to run and fight. Not that Ethan was doing that, he’d rather stay with his well-tried technique of play-dead. In other words, without an outsiders help the boy was unable to to practically anything. Without resistance he let Mave drag him through the glass doors into the fruit shop.

There he was greeted with… absolutely nothing unusual. There were neither too many nor too few customers inside, The fruit was sortet perfectly inside the boxes but barely stood out because of it’s pale, sickly colour. Two checkouts were open, one attended to by a young male, hair as black as Ethans, the other by a middle aged woman. Both just continued working precisely and didn’t pay any notice to the newcomers, didn’t acknowledge Mave at all.

Had Ethan not completely frozen in shock he would’ve asked his kidnapper one or two questions about that, though as it was he just left her to pull him through the narrow corridors. Quickly, the girl pushed him into a particular high and secluded corridor with some boxes containing withered apples. She kept careful watch over their surroundings, taking care not to be seen. Then she turned to Ethan. 

“What you’re about to see is absolutely secret, you can not tell anyone, and I mean ANYONE about it who’s not part of our organization, got it?”, she explained insistently. 

She apparently took his silence as an agreement. Without further ado she walked over to a box of apples and lifted it out of the shelf. Before Ethan had the chance to ask what she was doing and why, the ground underneath his feet opened up, literally. He wanted to scream, but no sound left his mouth as he fell down into darkness, the shop above him disappearing into nothingness. 

Mave jumped after him, grinning devilishly, then the hole closed up seamlessly and without a sound and the students were gone without a trace.


	7. Blue Bruises

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I love the ocean. I've always liked the blue, so tranquil and peaceful and gliding. And the fear of it."
> 
> ~Siouxsie Sioux

Robin yawned loudly and stretched lazily. What a boring, tiring day. Sluggishly he lifted his feet and put them down on the instrument panelling. The judging look of his supervisor went ignored. No, really. Robin didn’t notice any of the annoyed whispering, he missed all of the enraged looks. He was simply too lazy to care about what the others felt or even notice it. Though could they blame the boy for being somewhat more tired than usual on a day like this?

Usually one could expect a hectic hustle and bustle inside the interception station. While most of the rooms of their branched out underground hideout were completely shut off of the above world there were two caves with a connection to the surface. One of them with the intention to get up to the surface, the other was the interception station. It was set inside a perfectly round cave with dozens of holes in the ceiling. Each one of them was broad enough so Robin could stand inside them and he’d still be too small to reach across. Those entrance ways were covered by leather pillows on the inside, to minimise possible bodily harm for the users. Still, it wasn’t uncommon for first users to gather quite a few sore spots and burns from the friction.

Essentially they had build up a complexe sliding system from the cave up to the surface. Up in London the organisation had turned different buildings into so-called playing field. That’s what they called the secret tunnels which offered those wishing to enter the cave system a free fall down into the leather covered tunnels. While those started out almost vertical they gradually evened out toward the end to slow down the falling person. Obviously they would smash into the ground when leaving the tunnels, though to prevent that from happening the whole ground inside the interception station was covered by two meters of extremely soft, resilient pillows. That way anyone who knew of the secret playing fields could safely enter the organisation at any time. 

To protect themselves from people who didn’t belong to their group and either fell in by accident or even with bad intent they created the so called inspectors. At the very edge of the cave stood seven small rooms made of glass walls. In every one sat an officer of the safety department.

Well, at least that was the case most of the time. Today, Robin was forced to take over one of the desks. Not even because one of the usual inhabitants was sick or anything, far from it. He was here to pick someone up, a new recruit for their ranks. After all, his boss herself went up to go and get him, and as the management of their organisation so nicely told them: “That dude’s your problem now.”

That’s why Robin ended up in one of the glass rooms, staring up at the ceiling half asleep. He was just fine with Mave McCally taking so long to get the guy. More time for him to dodge actual work.

While Robin yawned loudly again, the complaints in the other cabins got louder. But he was used to that. Even in their society of abnormal, people like him, with their negative character traits, were eyed warily and full of distaste. 

“Do you seriously plan to teach people how to be lazy?”, he was asked oftentimes. When McCally was around and heard of it she tended to get awfully angry and close to beating them into the ground. Usually though, there was someone to stop her in time. Robin himself didn’t even try. Insults against him were a wasted effort. Why yell and complain about the people insulting him? It was way to tiring. He was fine the way he was, why put so much thought into it.

He was just about to close his eyes and give into the most beautiful thing earth had to offer - sleep - when a familiar rumble sounded out of one of the tunnels, like every time they were used. 

“Caution! Caution, fruit’s falling into the basket, fruit’s falling into the basket!”

Luckily, Robin was a very lax and laid back person, otherwise he might have slapped himself faced with such a lame encoded term. 

Immediately the safety inspectors started moving. They sat up straight and stared out into the cave expectantly, or rather the applying tunnel, leading up to a fruit shop in London's center. 

Robin followed their eyes, but in contrast to them, he wasn't at all concerned. Secretly, all of them feared that something had gone wrong and now, instead of Mave to fall through, they anticipated a bunch of policemen to deal with, who would deliver the whole organisation into a clinic in no time. In the end, Robin was too lazy to even smile upon their naivety. Mave McCally and failing? Yeah, sure, and Santa didn’t exist. 

As if to confirm his thoughts, there were two dull thumps shortly after another and the pillows collapsed into themself for a second. 

All the inspectors jumped up and stepped out of their chambers cautiously. Robin followed them unstressed. Once he reached the center of the room he pushed past some of the inspectors until he had a clear view of the new arrivals. The first thing he saw was the red hair of one Mave McCally and her green eyes snapped up to him. 

“Collins!”, she grinned gloatingly and gave him a thumbs-up. “Mission accomplished!”  
That’s when he heard a muffled groan from further down. Just now his gaze went down to see that McCally hadn’t just cushioned her fall with the pillows, but with the boy beneath her behind.

Catching sight of his grey clothes, his thoroughly average figure and ebony black hair the inspectors started an angry murmur.

“He looks way too normal!”, one of the girls complained, throwing Mave and her guest an evil look. “Are you sure he’s a candidate for our organisation?”

In place of a verbal answer, the redhead stood up from the boys back, roughly grabbed him by his shirts neck and yanked him up, granting everyone the perfect view to his tear- and snot stained face. 

While the guy himself continued to hiccup and cry, McCally laughed pleased.

“I think he’s perfect!”


	8. Yellow Overalls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "The sound of colors is so definite that it would be hard to find anyone who would express bright yellow with base notes, or dark lake with the treble."
> 
> ~Wassily Kandinsky

Ethan whimpered weakly when he saw how multiple strangers were standing around him, looking at him nastily. The fact that Mave held him up by the neck, showing off like he was some kind of trophy, didn’t help calm him in the slightest. It was already pretty clear to him that the whole thing was a mistake. Even when the society out there never would’ve accepted him, there was one good thing about it’s strict normality: he never had to fear uncomfortable surprises. These people on the other hand… Obviously Mave with her birthmark, red hair and cheeky personality had only been the tip of the iceberg. 

In front of him stood about a dozen people. None of them corresponded to the systems standards, Ethan realised right away. They were a stark contrast to Ethan and Mave in their plain, grey school uniforms. All except one of them were wearing a bright yellow overall ending with just as bright, green rubber boots. Most of them had some sort of obviously artificial hair colour, like the girl that complained loudly about them, sporting a purple bob, which she appeared to have cut herself with her eyes closed, it just looked that wild. All of them had a collection of batons on their leather belts and, to Ethans utmost horror, one gun each. 

He squeaked, panicked, and pulled free of Maves grip on him to hide behind her back instead. She was, without question, the least fearsome model of lunatics around here. 

His protector sighed, turned halfway and ruggedly pat his ebony hair. 

“Like a puppy”, she snorted. Then she turned back to their welcoming committee. “Can’t you see that you’re scaring him?”, she grumbled. “Or are you blind? None of us is a cop, it’s none of your business anymore, so scram!”

The group of people started to chunter again, and there were one or two unkind comments about Mave, which shocked Ethan. What was happening here? He’d thought that in this organisation, everyone worked together to defeat a mutual enemy. A naive thought, he realised now. It was the system that united people through the fact that everyone just blended right into the grey mass. Here though, here people clashed because of their different personalities.

Before he even got the chance to complain about his dire situation any further, Mave turned to one of the guys in the group, the one without an overall and, thank the heavens, no weapon. 

“Collins, we’re off”, she growled. “I can deal with these inspectors 5 minutes a day at most, and if we stay any longer I’m going to hit at least one of them unconscious.”

While the redhead took Ethan by his arm again to start wading through the soft pillows toward her friend, the boy quickly looked over to the so-called ‘Collins’. He was the only one who hadn’t participated in the fight between Mave and the inspectors, he seemed to be daydreaming in silence. Even though Mave spoke to him directly, he only reacted once a pink haired girl beside him pinched him.

“Kay…”, he mumbled, yawned, and trudged after them leisurely. 

Ethan looked at him for a moment longer. This boy… was he one of Maves friends? 

Collins ran his fingers through his short, crookedly cut, black hair and, with his fingertips, hit the rubber of his pilot’s goggles which he wore on top of his head. They had the same intense blue as colour of his protruding eyes. Those didn’t look particular attractive, rather in combination with his halfway lowered eyelids and brows they looked like those of a child, dreamily and unbroken. Like they all were before the system got ahold of them. When Ethan laid eyes on Collins white and blue training jacket, he shivered. For the first time since arriving he realised just how cold it was down here. Unfortunately, his jacket still hung neatly within the school hallway.

Inside his own mind as he was, Ethan barely registered anything about the tunnels they went through. He didn’t even notice any of the other humans roaming around them. Only when Mave stopped suddenly, in front of a big gateway, and he roughly ran into her back did he look up, surprised. 

“Whe- Where are we?”, he asked, almost too quiet to be heard.

Lucky for him, there was no one beside them around to be loud and drown out his voice. Maves friend stepped closer to him and sighed.

“Guardians”, he murmured and pointed to the gates with his thumb. He was either very tight-lipped, or just rude, but Ethan had hoped for somewhat more of an explanation. 

Mave scoffed. “Ignore him, this sluggard is completely harmless, but unfortunately just as useless.” Her hand let go of Ethans arm, instead she looked at him with a conspiratorial glint in her eyes. 

“It’s time!”, she said, smile on her lips. “From now on, you are officially a part of us!”

With that remark she turned and pushed open the heavy doors without hesitation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to start something Kara did on the original story, for that I need quotes about or mentioning colours!  
If you know some, send them to my Ao3 email saphir.art21@gmail.com ^^


	9. Black Dome

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I wore black because I liked it. I still do and wearing it still means something to me. It’s still my symbol of rebellion—against a stagnant status quo, against our hypocritical houses of God, against people whose minds are closed to others’ ideas.” 
> 
> ~Johnny Cash

For a short second, Ethan forgot all about his fear. Awestruck he stared at the circular cave that Mave and the other boy had led him into. It was quite simply breathtaking. The tunnels they had walked through earlier might have been supported by some pillars and additional wooden structures, but they were still mainly made out of pressed dirt and resembled gigantic mole tunnels. That was not the case for this cave, however.  
Behind the roughly made iron doors, a completely different world seemed to appear. Dark, black stone walls enclosed a dome shaped room. They looked like polished glass, cutting of any sound from the outside. The ground was made of the same material and once the three kids stepped into the room, the metal doors closed with a loud bang, echoing from the stone walls in an unsettling manner. 

For once, though, Ethans shivers were not caused by fear, quite contrary in fact. The boys gaze was almost magically pulled toward what he could see in the middle of the cave. 

In a perfect circle, a myriad of black stone pillars rose from the ground, each holding a fistsized crystal, each one of a slightly different yet vibrating colour, their alignment reminiscent of a minimized rainbow. There was no other way for Ethan to describe it, he had never seen such magnificent colours all at once, or at all. Such things didn’t exist in a world of strict order.

Abruptly, he stopped. Unable to move he just stood, stock still. Suddenly he felt unsure. How could someone undeserving like him step into a place like this? He felt like he didn’t belong.

“..than.”

Slowly he moved backwards. Yeah, it would be much better if he just walked away.

“Ethan!”

Flinching violently he snapped out of his trance and looked away from the crystals. Without him noticing, Mave had moved up to him. The girls stood beside him and looked him in the eye. “What are you waiting for?”, she growled. “I already told you, there’s no backing out now!”

Without waiting for him to disagree she grasped his hand-again-and roughly dragged him right into the center of the cave. Collins was already waiting for them. The boy with his protruding eyes didn’t seem bothered by the crystals spell like Ethan was, he didn’t even show any sign of respect. Everything appeared to pass right by him. Strangely, his placidess calmed Ethan much more than Maves toughness did. 

By now they were close enough to the pillars that one step would’ve been enough to get them into the circle. They were standing on the side of red and orange shimmering crystals. Ethan felt the warm light that shone out of them paint shapes on his face.

“Beautiful, aren’t they?”, Mave smiled at him, trying to calm him with her words, which even worked, if just a little. 

Ethan nodded in agreement but stayed silent.

“You know”, she continued, “a little over two hundred years ago, people like you and me were nothing unusual. Everyone accepted the fact that every living being had a right to be individual. Freedom to be who you were, that’s probably the best way to explain it.”  
Her eyes trailed over to the crystals and she growled quietly. “It’s impossible to even dream about something like that now, if you don’t want to immediately land you in one of the clinics.”

Collins yawned, earning him a glare from the redhead. He didn’t seem threatened at all. “Tired”, he grumbled. “Just explain it to him already, or we’ll stand here tomorrow”

“Since when did you get that chatty, huh?”, Mave hissed back, yet she gave in to her friends request. She gestured for Ethan to follow her into the circle and toward its center. He followed, hesitating, until both of them stood right in the middle.

Mave breathe in deeply, then she pointed around at all of the crystals surrounding them. “This is the doing of that cursed system.”

Ethan paused. He didn’t understand what her point was. “What? H-how? Why??”

“Why would they create something this majestic when, at first glance, it doesn’t suit them?”  
Maves eyes darkened. “Simple. They didn’t. What you can see here, it’s not simply crystals. But rather, it is what’s left of the most breathtaking creatures earth ever had.” Her smile returned, but it looked tormented instead of happy. 

“This, you see, are the past Guardians and Myths of our dimension.”


	10. Golden Whirlpool

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Where gold speaks, every tongue is silent."
> 
> ~ Italian Proverb

“M-Myths?” Ethan looked at Mave, uncomprehending. What did she mean with that? Who or what were those Guardians?

Robin yawned. “Show”, he murmured just loud enough to be heard by them. 

Mave McCally growled and threw him a deprecating look. “I think you meant: activate the crystals and show him what you mean with Guardians and Myths, right you sloth?”

Robin just hummed and smiled tiredly. Drowsily he looked on as his boss walked over to the golden crystal which already stood out thanks to its enormous size. While Robin could’ve picked up any of the stones with one hand, the same would only work for the golden one if he were to use both arms. 

McCally had reached the crystal by then and threw one last look back, to make sure her charge was still where she left him in the center of the circle. The boy in the grey shirt had surprisingly stopped shaking. Robin was glad about that. It was simply too difficult to deal with emotional people. That’s probably where the trouble with his boss came from, too. Her short temper simply clashed with his easy going nature. No wonder that, while they were colleagues, they weren’t particularly close. 

Now the redhead threw him a look of reproach. He knew her well enough to know that he had absolutely no idea what was going on in her head. Would’ve been way too troublesome anyway. Now she was pointing at the circle, then at him. Robin understood and slowly dragged his feet, until he, too, stood inside the circle.

McCally nodded, satisfied, then she laid both her hands onto the stones surface. Without further warning, a loud hissing resounded inside the cave, followed by a strangled scream.

Robin rubbed his temple, quietly groaning. These newbies, they always reacted the same, panicked way. As if it was so bad that, shortly after the stones were activated, glaring lightning bolts shot out of all of them into the center of the circle, right into the heart of the person standing there. 

** ** ** ** ** ** 

Ethan was seconds away from falling unconscious. Right now he had been waiting for Mave to explain the meaning of the crystals to him, then suddenly, without any warning, they just activated and shot lightning at him! Every bolt hit him somewhere at his chest area, seemed to penetrate right through his flesh and bones, directly into his heart.

Panicked he screamed and tried to run, away from the creepy lights, when he felt someone grab him from behind and hold him in place. He tried to break free, but those enormous hands were powerful and filled with strength. Escape was simply not possible.

He was unable to see either Mave or Collins anymore, the light surrounding him was too strong, a rainbow coloured, perfectly round loop, eliminating any possible escape.

“Hey, calm down my boy”, the monster-hands behind him suddenly talked. “We not tryin’ to hurt you, everything fine!”

“North, you’re scaring the poor kid!”, a clear, female voice mentioned, also from somewhere Ethan was unable to see. Instead, he saw something else, looking at it speechless. Suddenly, inside the light beams, he could see something else, something even brighter, shimmering gold. That had to be the crystal that Mave had touched just seconds ago Ethan decided, or the small part of his brain not consumed by panic did. 

It was different than the other crystals, not shooting lightning at Ethan but instead forming some sort of golden whirlpool, which, in a breathtaking show of light, slowly formed a sphere. With every passing second the golden substance solidified until Ethan could make out tiny grains of sand.

“Sandy really always takes the most time”, a third voice laughed.

“Mate, yah know exactly that he tends to take a nap or two when nobody needs or calls him” That made it four.

Ethan had absolutely no idea what those people were talking about. Not that he was paying close attention…

The golden whirlwind had started to take shape, slowly but surely. Like a butterfly, something, or someone, started to come out, breaking the outermost layer with short arms. The first thing to become visible were three hair spikes, pointing wildly into every direction, followed by a friendly round face with bright golden eyes. Bit by bit, the strangest looking little man Ethan had ever seen fought free of the cocoon. Once the layer of sand had disappeared, the unfamiliar being had arrived on the ground, a couple meters away from Ethan, smiling cheerily. Quickly, a golden bowler hat appeared on his head which he lifted in an old school fashion to greet the boy in front of him.  
Ethan was so confused that, instead of asking what was happening, he answered the greeting with a polite nod.

By that point, all the lights around him had dimmed to nothing, even the lightning to his heart, without him noticing. 

Mave watched the event with a broad grin. “Allow me to introduce to you”, she chipped in. “Ethan, the Guardians. Guardians, this is Ethan! He’s the newby.”


	11. Black Crystal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Because I can't help my impatience xD

Ethan was breathing hard. Guardians? Of what? What was this, who were these guys? Up until now, his gaze had been glued to the golden man, but now he turned to see the rest of this strange gathering.Quite a bit further to the right, he saw a guy with hair as white as snow and brightly sparkling, blue eyes. He was barefoot and leaning on sort of a sheperds staff with an hook at the end. When he saw Ethan looking he grinned boldly.

“Jack”, he laughed, pointing at himself with his thumb. “Jack Frost, the myth of winter. I’m the guardian of Fun and Joy. It’s my center.”

Hurriedly Ethan turned away, too intimidated by this cheeky, foreign looking boy. The tight grip on his shoulders loosened then, and he was able to turn around fully. A decision he came to regret when coming face to face with a monster. A giant, at least two meters high with a full beard and arms covered in tattoos, was looking down at him. He was the one who had been talking with the strange accent, now giving a booming belly laugh and crossing his arms in front of his chest.

“Ohoho! Two Hundred years ago children never in need of explanation of who I am.” He winked, smiling. “Nicholas St. North is my name, or just North, is shorter. Santa, you never heard? I am Guardian of Wonder!”

Ethan was about to shake his head (Santa? Who or what was that supposed to be?) as suddenly, something green flashed behind the giant. North saw his questioning look and stepped aside to grant the boy a clear view. Immediately, he was rendered speechless. A… winged human? A feathered woman with delicate limbs and the pointiest nose he had ever seen smiled at him kindly. Her perfectly aligning teeth flashed when she waved at him.

“I’m sorry, even though I’m the tooth fairy, I wasn’t able to collect your teeth and with them, your happiest childhood memories. That’s what I’m the Guardian of, Memories”

“I don’t believe this…”, Ethan mumbled. By now he had seen every weird thing this organisation had to offer, he was sure of it. Obviously, he was mistaken, which was quickly proven.

“I dunno whether he be suited for dis job mate.”

This was the moment inside these tunnels where Ethan felt like he was about to die from a heart attack. With a loud scream he stumbled backwards by a few meters, almost bumping into Jack.

What. Was. That?!

A giant rabbit was staring at him with distrusting, squinted eyes, looking more human than Ethan would’ve ever thought possible. 

“Not a single drop of courage in his blood”, he grumbled with a deep voice, causing a cold shiver down Ethan’s spine. Ok, yeah, that wasn’t really difficult in his case. Still.

“Calm down, please”, the feathered something tried to appease him. Unfortunately, it didn’t work.

Ethan had what could be called a panic attack. Everything around him scared him, he was quivering violently and again about to cry. Normally, at this point it would have taken him roughly an hour to calm back down. Mave McCally apparently realised that and did not intend to leave him with that much time. Not hesitating in the slightest she ran up to Ethan, towering in front of him and seized his shoulders.

“Get yourself together”, she hissed. “They won’t do anything.”

When Ethan still didn’t react the way she wanted, Mave took the only alternative she knew. 

She hit him- hard.

The sound of skin on skin was so loud, it echoed inside the stone cave.

Startled, the boy blinked at her, shock and pain mingling and leaving him stunned. 

“Better?”, the redhead asked, waiting patiently for him to nod. “Great, nice to hear. Now take a deep breath, in and out, and listen to me carefully.”

Ethan did as told while Mave continued talking stubbornly.

“These five are basically the head of our organisation. They are magical beings, also called myths. None of them will hurt you, they just came to examine you and determine, who of the myths your special character trait belongs to. You follow?”

Ethan nodded slowly, which caused the usual, pleased grin to appear on her lips. 

“Great. Also, I have decided, since it’s worked so well, to hit you every time you start to space out while the moment isn’t fit for it. Special trait or not, you really manage to get on every one of my nerves pal.”

With those admittedly not really encouraging words, she stepped back and casually walked back to her colleague, Collins. The Guardians used the opportunity to speak up again. 

Santa cleared his throat while the others looked at Ethan like he was a lunatic himself. No wonder, considering his outbreak just a moment earlier. 

“Could you step in middle?”, North asked, pointedly polite. Apparently he had decided to treat Ethan like a startled fawn. A wise decision.

Slowly, very slowly, the boy walked closer to Santa, vehemently ignoring the easter bunny standing behind the giant. Arriving at the man's side Ethan allowed him to pull him into the circle’s center again, big hands a calming presence on his shoulders.

“Jack, North”, Santa said.”Sandy, West; Tooth, East; Bunny, South!”

While the Guardians did as told, positioning themselves around them, Santa turned to Ethan with a calming voice.

“No worries”, he mumbled. “Soon over, no hurt.”

Ethan would’ve liked to believe in his words, but unfortunately, his previous experience with dangerous situations made that just a little bit (a lot) difficult. So he didn’t react to the giant’s words, just stared at the ground, hoping it would all be over soon.

Mave and Collins had to leave the circle, leaving just the six others inside. It was time. Santa raised his voice.

“Na neboto, čovekot živeel vo mesečinata”, he started, voice raspy. 

As soon as he was finished, the tooth fairy continued, voice like she was singing a sad song.

“Anata ga nozomu mono o, iunaraba, mahō no yōna nanika ga anata ni okoru.“

“But the very next morning you have enough of him”, the easter bunny picked up.

Ethans gaze travelled over to the sandman. The golden guy had not said a single word since he appeared, and it would apparently stay that way, as, instead of opening his mouth and talking, Sandy formed the words above his head. “Usted quiere huir de él, pero aún no es suficiente.”

Lastly, Jack spoke up, eyes glowing. “Von nun an bist du ein Diener des Mondes.”

The moment the last word of the ritual ended, Ethan felt a weight enclose his heart. It took his breath away, but it took just a second, and as soon as the uncomfortable feeling appeared, it was gone. Instead, a dark light appeared at the edge of Ethans vision. When he looked over to it, he could see that the black crystal had started glowing.

While the Guardians around him breathed out startled noises, the shadows solidified, forming a thin figure, cloaked in darkness. Only two golden slit eyes looked out of all the black.

“Well well, see who we got here”, the figure purred, a malicious grin taking place on his angular face. “My old buddies actually managed to find Fear.”


	12. Golden Eagle Eyes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Silence is golden but too long a silence an imitation junk”
> 
> ~ Dr. Amit Abraham

“I had imagined the human form of my power to be somewhat… less pitiful”, the strange creature scoffed while he examined Ethan from head to toe with his golden eagle eyes. 

The terrified boy was shaking again and would’ve preferably scuttered over to Mave, but he was frozen in place, unable to move. Also, he felt like all of his energy was slowly leaving his body, oozing out of his veins, like it was sucked out of him. 

Meanwhile, the Guardians started to move.

The rabbit was yelling. “Pitch you Bastard! What the heck are you doing here!?”

Pitch? Was that the guy's name?

The newcomer didn’t seem particularly impressed by the angry and shocked faces of the other myths. He just threw them a snarky look and laughed. “The last two hundred years apparently didn’t do you any favours, you’re still dense, jackass. My crystal was activated, you guys have found my so called partner”, Pitch bowed to Ethan sarcastically. “Thank you my young friend, it was rather… boring, these last years.” His lips pulled apart into a mocking smirk, showing off two rows of shark-like teeth. 

Jack Frost was also looking at the boy. If Ethan wasn’t mistaken… his face was showing disgust? Whatever was happening here, the Guardians were obviously not happy about Pitch’s appearance… Ethan felt unsure. He felt awfully lost in between all these strange creatures. As the fear in his mind started rising exponentially, Pitch’s smirk widened even further than the boy had thought possible. Then, suddenly, he started coughing loudly. As his hand rose up to cover his mouth he saw it come back with droplets of blood. “Interesting…”, he murmured. Then his gaze went over to the Sandman, who again showed off golden symbols above his head.

Ethan was surprised as Pitch seemed to understand just as much- or as little- as he did. His face resembled a question mark.

“Save the charade”, he growled.

“Sandy just said, being in this form be hard in the beginning”, Santa translated. “You have to get used to it, enough for today, continue tomorrow.”

The ebony black myth laughed quietly. “Worried for my safety? You guys are still as naive and weak as two hundred years ago.” His form started to disappear into thin air slowly. Shortly before he vanished completely, Pitch turned to Ethan. “Until we meet again”, he promised. “In your dreams at the latest.” Then he was gone again. 

The whole cave felt heavy with oppressive silence. The Guardians were looking at the terrified boy with surprise (Tooth, Sandy and North) and disgust (Jack and Bunny).

“Some things should not be meddled with…”, the hairy monster growled seriously. 

Ethan didn’t know what had just happened, but it wasn’t anything good. At least, not for him.

Santa took his hand off Ethans shoulder and took a few steps back. “We can't fault the boy for this”, he said calmly, any warmth his voice held earlier was gone. Even if he tried to support Ethan, he had his doubts, deep inside.

The Guardians whispered with each other, throwing Ethan weird looks every once in a while. He felt sickish. At least his feeling of physical weakness was gone, nobody sucking at his energy anymore.

In the end, someone who had been quiet for a long time raised their voice.

“Is the ceremony finally over?”, Mave asked.

Both her and Collins were standing at the edge of the circle. None of them seemed particularly bothered, unlike the Guardians. Ethan didn’t miss the angry glare the Easter Bunny shot at them. “He’s a difficult case mate. Better watch him closely.”

“If Pitch appears, it’s never something good…”, the Tooth Fairy exclaimed.

Ethan lowered his head dejectedly. He had hoped for support from the nice lady, but apparently that was in vain. 

“You better go now”, said North. “We need to think. Until then, you keep an eye on the boy, da? For safety.”

Slowly, the Guardians disappeared, bodies dissolving into gas and drifting to their crystals. 

Ethan didn’t dare to lift his eyes off the ground. Only toward the end he did, catching sight of the Sandman's face. To his surprise, the little man was smiling pleasantly. He was just about to respond with a smile of his own when a cold voice echoed inside his head.

“DIE!”

Startled he sucked in a breath of air, but the feeling of burning hatred disappeared as fast as it came. Worried, he wondered whether the Sandman had seen his change in demeanor, but the Guardian had already melted into his stone.


	13. Green Heads

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New rule: I'll update every Sunday! More if I have some more freetime that week ^^

Ethan stood there, dazed, while staring emptily into the air where the Guardians had been. 

Mave huffed disparaging. “I know that they’re all mighty, powerful beings or something, but sometimes I would love to kick their asses up to the moon and beat some sense into them…”

Collins answered with a half hearted thumbs up, which, for his standards, was practically a roaring ‘You-Can-Count-On-Me’.

The redhead wrinkled her nose and crossed her arms in front of her chest, yelling: “We don’t have the whole day Ethan! Get yourself together, there’s still work up ahead!”

The boy flinched, though not because of fear this time, rather because he was so deeply lost in thought. Mave was not surprised by that. Of course, she hadn’t held on to any illusions from the beginning. Ethans special trait was his over the top, irrational fear. Everyone in their organisation knew exactly what myth that emotion belonged to. The Guardians hadn’t been willing to accept that fact and now that they were confronted with the harsh truth, they reacted hostile toward the young boy. 

Meanwhile, Ethan had come out of his shocked numbness and slowly walked over to them, shoulders slumped. When he arrived by their side, Mave punched him in the shoulder amicably. 

“Calm down, you look like you’re seconds away from another crying episode!”

Ethan risked a small smile, even if he still wasn’t looking her in the eye. 

“Where to…?”, he asked hesitantly. 

The redhead grinned. “Finally you’re starting to ask the real questions!” She draped her arm around his shoulder and led him straight out of the cave. Collins followed, yawning. 

** ** ** ** ** ** **   
Together they pushed open the heavy, huge gate and stepped out into the tunnel system in which the organisation had built its secret hideout. With a loud crash, the doors fell closed behind them. After a couple meters they left the side tunnel leading toward the crystal cave, stepping into an arterial tunnel network. By that point everything was swarmed by groups of people scurrying from A to B, all of them focused on their job yet still taking some time for some quick chit chat with a colleague or two. 

Ethan obviously felt out of place in between all those strangers, so he just stared at the ground in front of his feet while being led by Mave. Unfortunate really, he could’ve seen many interesting things. The world above was dominated by such a relentless order and perfection that the chaos inside this cave system was terrifying. Everything here fell under different extremes. Down here, everything was randomly thrown together and intertwined. Even the ground was changing every few steps as stone slabs turned to gravel over to earth and wood. Nobody put any effort into finding a single aesthetic anywhere. All kinds of different lights hung from the ceiling, they even walked by a mirror ball. They had stolen it all, or rather ‘Borrowed-For-The-Greater-Good’ as they liked to say down here.

Even more interesting than the ground and the lights were the people walking past them. Some wore the yellow overalls like the inspectors did. It was their trademark, their uniform.

Currently, Mave and Ethan were the only ‘grey spots’ down there. Both were still wearing the school uniform while the rest… well, lets say, inside the organisation it was viewed as some sort of silent protest to dress as flashy and colourful as physically possible, to defy the society above them. Maves own red hair was dyed and used to be dark blonde. The same applied to many people down in the tunnels. Green, pink, blue, violet, any bright colour imaginable, coupled with wild hairstyles which would’ve caused any policeman of the system to ‘hospitalize’ them immediately. 

When it came to clothes… well, everybody had their own taste. Some wore day to day clothes like Collins (a simple comfy jacket, pilot’s goggles awry on his head and black pats) or made do with the uniforms of their division.

What someone did, what kind of tasks they had to achieve, was determined by the command centre.Which was exactly where they were headed.

“Slow”, someone ordered, voice weak.

Mave stopped, huffing, Ethan following. When she turned she saw Collins, shuffling roughly five metres behind them, face beet red.

“Pull yourself together!”, hissed the redhead.

Her only answer was a pitiful groan as he pushed past a giggly group of girls throwing hom dreamy looks. 

If even possible, Mave got even angrier. That was typical. No matter where they went, everywhere these sappy brats appeared, trying to flatter Collins. She’d never understand what they saw in this slowpoke but there was practically a whole fanclub around him.   
Usually she ignored it, now it was getting too much. Without taking her arm off Ethans shoulder she jumped forward, grabbed Collins’ hoodie and pulled him closer to her. 

The boy wasn’t impressed and simply wrinkled his nose. 

Breathing heavy she tried to hold back from punching him in the face. “We’re almost there”, she pressed out between clenched teeth. “One more turn, got it?”

Collins just murmured a simple “Yeah…”

Mave flushed an angry red. Even if Ethan was the nightmare king incarnated, she’d always take him over this deadbeat. Always!


	14. Brown Braids

Beth sighed and messed with her long braids, bored, while sitting at her counter and watching the commotion around her. As usual, the command centre was chaotically busy. Luckily they were located inside one of the biggest caves of the area, otherwise everybody would’ve suffocated from the sheer mass of people crowded together. 

“Hey, how much longer do you need?!”

Annoyed, Beth looked up. While she was sitting behind her desk, in front of it stood a tall girl with pink hair and a yellow overall. One of those inspectors, disgusting… And a girl on top of it all, making it even worse.

Behind her stood a long row of people, all staring at her impatiently. 

“It’s been more than five minutes since I asked you for an assignment”, the inspector hissed. “Do your damn job!”

Beth didn’t even blink. With her thumb she pointed at the computer beside her. “It’s still searching the system, not my fault that nobody has a job for a freaking overall-wearer.”

The girl's face turned bright red and balled her fists. “At least I made it further than a stupid recorder, every idiot could do that job!”

Beth stared at her for a second, expressionless. Then she shrugged and turned to her computer, quickly typing something. The pink-haired girl crossed her arms, pleased. “Finally, why not from the start?”

“Because originally, I wanted to spare you the job from the garbage disposal”, Beth mumbled. “People there don’t care who comes, stupid recorder or moronic inspector.”   
With a last klick of her mouse she finished the assignment and a sheet of paper came out of the printer to her side. Pink-hair stared at her, gaping. “No”, she started to protest. “Forget it! I’m part of the safety department, fucking give me a job fitting of my abilities!”

A smug grin played at Beth's bright red lips as she got the paper with the assignment and handed it over to the other girl.

While she stalked away angrily, the other people in front of Beth's desk traded worried looks. Most likely, they all now understood what happened and what would inevitably happen if one of them insulted the recorder. Said girl leaned back in her chair leisurely. “Next one, please”, she whistled with a smirk.

While the next client stepped up and explained his request she typed away at her keyboard zealously. No matter what those damn inspectors said, she liked her job. As a recorder, it was her and her colleagues job to maintain order in their organisation.

There were roughly 50 desks inside their so-called control centre, each sporting a big computer operated by one of the recorders taking and solving requests one after another. The most fitting term would probably be job agency. It was custom that every member of the organisation was part of some departement, like the inspectors, but even still, that didn’t keep anyone busy for the whole day. 

Not everybody still had a home and family to return to up in the ‘real world’. Actually, more than half of them spent almost all of their time down in the tunnels.

As thanks or, well, to support the organisation, everyone picked up small tasks from the recorders, things like garbage disposal over to specific outside missions. 

Just when she was searching for a job for her next client, someone tapped her on the shoulder.

Surprised she looked up. Behind her stood a girl with an all too familiar face, framed by red hair, crooked grin on her lips. “Hey Beth!”

“Mave!”, the recorder jumped up to hug her friend excitedly. “I was wondering when you’d come back!”

“My duty today was kinda… complicated…”, Mave answered evasively. Beth was pushed back a little so Mave could look her in the eyes. “I need you for the new guy, he really has to find work before…”

“Before what?”, asked the brown-haired girl curious, but her friend shook her head with a worried look at all the people in front of her desk. “Can’t tell. For now at least. Let’s just say there were a couple… complications. I’d like to finish this before the rumors start up.”

Beth thought for a moment and nodded. “Fine, because it’s you.”

With that, she wanted to start walking toward where Mave hid the new guy. That, however, did not go over well for her clients.

“What the heck, I’ve been waiting for an assignment for over an hour!”, the guy at the front growled. “I’m definitely not gonna wait anywhere else! Fucking finish your job before you go drinking tea with your little girlfriend!”

While Mave frowned, worried, Beth turned with a predatory smile on her face. Without saying a word she sat down at her desk and typed a few commands. Then she nodded, satisfied, and pressed on ENTER.

The printer started automatically, spitting out sheets of paper, while Beth pulled up the little microphone on her desk, turning on the speaking-system.

“This is an announcement for everyone waiting on counter nine!”, her voice echoed in the room. “The counter is closed, I repeat, the counter is closed!”

An annoyed mumble started up, but Beth wasn’t finished. “Of course, I know how long you’ve been waiting for my services, so I was so free as to print out an assignment for everyone not willing to wait on another counter! The garbage disposal awaits you with open arms, work starts 15 minutes from now! Have fun!”

With that she stood, snatched Maves wrist and ran off before the angry mob behind her started moving and tearing her to shreds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that it took so long, I'm currently having trouble with my applications... and my mums stressing me out about it... I'm full of nervous energy and I dunno what to do... But here's the chapter! I'll try to keep up with the weekly updates though!!!
> 
> As I'm finisheing them pretty last minute though, Kara, who's knda betaing the chapter, doesn't usually have time to read them first, so excuse any typos (and tell me about them if you want, I'll correct them!)


	15. Yellow Flickering

Ethan sat with his knees under his chin, crouched in a corner of the small cave Mave had locked him and Collins in before disappearing without further comment. That had been just a couple minutes ago, yet he already felt more and more nervous. 

The room they were in could be best described as a supply closet or something. A couple shelves stood at the stone walls, a meagre lightbulb was the only light source at the ceiling, it’s yellow, dim light somewhat creepy. 

While Ethan had retreated as far away from the door as physically possible, Collins stood relaxed, leaning against the wall, a bit to his left, eyes closed. When the boy looked at him, his stomach fluttered nervously. 

_“Keep an eye on him”_ That’s what the hairy monster had said, right? Ethan still couldn’t wrap his head around what had happened in that crystal cave. He was utterly overwhelmed. Myths, Guardians, secret organization? Whimpering he pulled his hand up to his head. Whatever it had been with North, Jack and the others, once that Pitch Black had appeared they had all seen him in another light…

His special trait was fear? Wasn’t that what Mave had said? If that was true, what was he doing here? Who would ever want to be more afraid than necessary? It didn’t benefit anyone, no matter how one turned and thought about it.  
He lifted his head and looked over at Collins. That guy had to be special too, otherwise he most likely wouldn’t have ended up in this organization. What might it be for him? Honesty? Hope? No, probably not… maybe, peace? That he could see, with the others calm expression, and his eyes, even though he was looking right at him, there was absolutely no---

…

Oh damn.

Ethans face turned bright red when he realised that Collins was staring right at him. How long had he known that Ethan was staring at him? “I-I-I-I’m so-sorry!”, he stuttered, his voice hoarse, ready to receive a degrading comment or something, or like Mave tended to react, get hit in the face.

Collins pushed away from the wall and slowly walked toward the cowering boy. Frantically Ethan waved his hands. “I… I didn’t- I didn’t m-mean i-it!”, he scrambled, panicking, while Collins sank to his knees in front of him to stare into his eyes. 

Just when Ethan was about ready to faint or flee, Maves' colleague talked. “Lazy”, he hummed.

‘Huh?’

Collins pulled at the strap of his pilot goggles listlessly. “I’m lazy, got it?”

“Uhm… okay?” Ethan wasn’t sure as to how he should react or whether he should say something. In the flickering light of the single light bulb, the two boys sat in front of each other and started, one bored, the other visibly confused. 

Collins sighed, closed his eyes and ran his fingers through his short, black hair. “Forget about what happened in that cave. Trust me, you’re not the only one whose character isn’t a jackpot…”

Uncertain, Ethan scratched his forehead. Was that true or was the other boy making fun of him?  
His thoughts must’ve been visible on his face, as Collins chimed again. 

“Scoot over”, he mumbled. Ethan did as told, until there was enough space on the wall beside him for the other to sit beside him. With a content sigh he stretched out, arms crossed behind his head.

“I didn’t come here the same way you did”, he started, Ethan listening patiently. 

“Those jerks from the system long knew about me being different, and unlike you and most others, I didn’t even try to hide it. What happened then is pretty obvious, huh?” He threw Ethan a tired look, but he stared at the ground stubbornly. Of course he knew what Collins was telling him.

“You’ve… been to an… institution…”, he murmured.

“Yup”, was the short reply. Ethan spared him the question of asking what they did to him there. Nobody ever wanted to talk about _that_.

“I… I also had… well, therapy…”, he whispered without looking up. That way he couldn’t see Collins' reaction, which he was fine with. Why wouldn’t he? No One felt like discussing it any further anyway. Either way, Ethan felt slightly better knowing that at least one other person had gone through the same stuff he did. 

“A-And how… how did you get… out?”

“Sometimes, the organization pulls rescue missions to those places”, Collins answered. “I was the only one they could free. The safety precautions in those places are pretty crazy as you’d know.” Ethan nodded. “Well, whatever. When I got here I ran through the same procedure you did”, he continued. “Crystal cave, light show and all that other shabang. When they found out that I was just some lazy guy who couldn’t get bothered to do anything they stuck me into McCallys division and that was that.”

He laughed quietly. “She’s really a walkin’ time bomb, but she treats everyone the same, whether amazing character trait or bad one, as long as you don’ sell her out, she’s there for ya.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should be asleep, not writing, but eh xD I always do stuff last minute, terrible habit...


	16. Red Cheeks

Suddenly the door to the small cavern was ripped open, banging against the stone wall. Ethan flinched like a frightened rabbit and hid behind Collins instinctually. Who was completely unaffected and unimpressed, lifting his hand and lowering it on Ethans head in a calming manner. 

Mave, who barreled into the room, threw them a distrustful look. So she was gone for like four minutes and suddenly the two of them were the best of friends? Well great…

With a couple steps she was on them, seized Ethans arm and pulled him up while looking at Collins like she was telling him to rather stay away from him. Apparently she secretly suspected the newcomer would get infected by Collin’s unmotivated state. But the deadbeat didn’t take to it and instead asked: “Where’ve you been? Don’ just lock us in ‘here and disappear.”

Mave was just about to remind him with a couple punches as to who the boss was when a shrill squealing came from the door. 

Mave didn’t get a chance to recollect herself when she was already pushed to the side by Beth throwing her arms around Ethans neck.

“Oh my gosh, this has to be fate!”, she cooed without letting go of the boy. While said boy just looked profoundly confused, Mave and Collins exchanged knowing looks. How they could’ve forgotten about that detail, nobody knew...

Beth, who was just a few centimeters smaller than the boy in her arms, lifted her head to gaze into his eyes. “I had lost all hope already”, she breathed out dreamily.

“Uuh… okay?” Ethan was close to falling unconscious, again, but managed not to, if just barely. Did these tunnels only house the mad?

Beth pouted. “Hello?? Is this how you talk to your soulmate?”

…

Come again?

Collins laughed quietly while Mave attempted to explain.

“Listen, Ethan. This here, this is Elisabeth Hook, or Beth for short. She’s supposed to… help us, find a place for you and stuff. Unfortunately she’s a little…”

“Insane”, Collins finished.

That earned him a glare from the recorder currently hugging Ethan. “You just shut up”, she hissed. “Just because I broke up with you doesn’t mean that you have to insult me in front of my new boyfriend, got it?!”

“Wha… New… New boyfriend???” Ethan didn’t understand anything anymore. And even less when that pretty girl with the long, brown braids bent over to and kissed him.

He tried backing away, surprised, but the wall at his back stopped any attempts.

Only as Beth had to come up for air did he manage to push her away and hide behind Mave.

“W-w-w-wha…” He was so shocked he didn’t even manage to get past the first word of his sentence, still staring at the others, flabberghast.

At Collins who was grinning broadly and looked significantly more awake than earlier, at Mave, whose facial expression varied between amused and angry, and at Beth, that strange girl that just turned bright red, hands covering her eyes.

“Our first kiss”, she whispered. “So romantic!”  
Ethan thought it was best to continue abusing the redhead as a protective shield. Whatever he’d thought of this place so far, the tunnels, the crystals or the myths, this brown haired girl was one of the strangest things he’d ever been confronted with. 

“So, that’s the new guy you told me about?”, Beth asked, happiness evident in her voice, as she turned to Mave, who smirked. “Yes. Though I had forgotten about this… thing of yours.”

“‘Thing’ is one word for it…”, Collins grumbled and threw Ethan a pitying look. “Don’t think too much of it. She kisses every boy she sees for the first time. Tells you you’re the love of her life and breaks up with you for one reason or another a week later.”

“Th-That so?” Ethan could hardly believe this. Was this one of those women rumored to… for money….?  
If at all possible his face turned an even darker shade of red. No. No way, was this possibly…?

“A… are you a… a p-p-p-prosti-” “ANYWAYS”, Mave interrupted him rudely, giving him a pointed punch to the side. “She’s here to help.”

Ethan slumped over into himself while Beth stood up straight, taking on a business like presence.

Collins stood up slowly to give Ethan a brotherly pat on the shoulder, whispering: “I get why you’d think that, but better don’t try to ask again, 'kay?”

Ethan nodded weakly, swallowing a groan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no excuse. Unless you take depression, because that's the reason. Still, I'm extremtly sorry for the long pause. I can't promise it won't happen again, that'd be a lie (tho I do wanna start therapy, so who knows) but I'm determined to finish translating this story!!!
> 
> Edit: Some mistakes ^^"


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